IT WAS all a veterinary student’s prank. Two severed cow tongues in glass containers were left in the parking lot at Trincity Mall. At first, it was no joke to security guards who found the tongues at about 10 am yesterday.

The bizarre discovery sparked speculation the tongues were from humans and were a message sent to those linked to the cocaine seizure in the United States. The glass containers had a $100 bill on top with a note which read: “If anybody have to remove this installation before I return, this is for your trouble.”

The startled guards contacted Arouca police who visited the mall and retrieved the glass containers and note. The items were taken to the Forensic Science Centre, St James and handed over to forensic pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov.

It took him a minute to identify the tongues as being not human but animal — cow to be precise.

Alexandrov believes the items came from the School of Veterinary Medicine, Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope because the glass containers are the kind designed for storing anatomical specimens. They are large, square-shaped and sealed.

It was a student’s prank, Alexandrov said. He advised police to contact the veterinary school for officials to collect the cow tongues and take it back for the benefit of students’ research.

He joked that in Russia, the country of his birth, people eat boiled cow tongues after pasting it with mayonnaise. After which, the meal is “washed down” with vodka. He said in Trinidad, his wife gets a butcher to provide her with fresh cow tongues which he enjoys.